School board not satisfied with DuPont's offer

Freda Savana @fredasavana

Wednesday

Jan 30, 2013 at 12:01 AMJan 30, 2013 at 5:00 AM

The New Hope-Solebury School District wants to know more about the long-term effects of a DuPont-manufactured chemical that damaged dozens of trees on the district’s campus, before it settles on compensation from the company.

Dave Hansel, the district’s director of operations, said the school board still had questions after DuPont’s recent settlement offer.

The chemical giant said it would remove the 43 remaining damaged evergreens and pay the district $89,980. The offer also includes replacing the trees and providing $6,450 for two years of maintenance for the new trees, Hansel said. Another $16,957 was provided for compensation and an additional $1,017 was offered to care for six trees that are still healthy.

Wanting more time to consider all aspects of the damage caused by DuPont’s herbicide, Imprelis, the school board directed its solicitor to request a second extension on the matter.

“We want time to do our due dilligence,” said Hansel.

The board is looking to hire a certified arborist to inspect the remaining trees on the district’s 88-acre Bridge Street campus in New Hope. Officials are also concerned about the property’s deciduous trees, soil and possible water contamination, said Hansel.

New Hope-Solebury is part of a class-action lawsuit against DuPont. Imprelis is reported to have killed or damaged thousands of trees across the country in 2011.

The district’s landscaping vendor applied the chemical to grass areas as a weed control agent last summer. A few months later, Hansel and his team noticed several trees, some 35 feet tall, were dying.

Just before the school year began in September, 12 of the 55 trees were removed by DuPont contractors because they were an “imminent danger to our students,” Hansel said.